1. Field
Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a refrigerator, and more particularly to a technology for increasing efficiency of a refrigerator using the internal structure of the refrigerator, and efficiently defrosting the refrigerator using a defrosting heater and a blower fan.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a refrigerator stores foods or beverages (hereinafter referred to as “stored good”) in a fresh state for a long time using cold air. The refrigerator generally classifies a storage chamber into a refrigerating chamber for storing the stored goods at a temperature above zero and a freezing chamber for storing the stored goods at a temperature below zero.
The refrigerator repeatedly performs a cooling cycle for sequentially performing compression→condensation→expansion→evaporation of a refrigerant, such that it allows the inner space of the storage chamber to be kept at a target temperature. In other words, the refrigerator provides cold air cooled by an evaporator arranged in each storage chamber to each storage chamber such that each storage chamber can be kept at a target temperature.
The evaporator evaporates the refrigerant to cool the storage chamber. During evaporation of the refrigerant, frost is formed at the evaporator. A defrosting heater is formed at the refrigerator to remove frost formed on the evaporator.
A representative technology for removing the frost formed at the evaporator mounts a heater to the evaporator so that the frost formed at the evaporator can be melted and removed by the heater.
In more detail, as can be seen from Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 2010-216680, the heater and a temperature sensor are mounted to each evaporator, such that heater operation can be controlled by a temperature detected by the corresponding evaporator temperature sensor.
According to technology of Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 2010-216680, after a heater is driven to activate defrosting, a temperature of the evaporator is measured using a temperature sensor of the evaporator, such that the operation time of the heater can be reduced. In more detail, a pattern of the heater (i.e., the driving and stoppage of the heater) can be controlled according to a detection temperature of the evaporator temperature sensor.
However, according to technology of Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 2010-216680, since the defrosting process is achieved by controlling the heater using a predetermined pattern, a time needed to finish defrosting is consumed, such that there is a high possibility of increasing a temperature of the inner space of the refrigerator during the defrosting process. Therefore, there is a high probability that food or beverages stored in the refrigerator become rotten.
In addition, if the remaining frost is present after completion of the defrosting operation, or if frost is concentrated only at a specific part of the inner space of the refrigerator, there is a need to maintain the output of the heater at a predetermined level or higher so as to remove the remaining frost. For this purpose, a conventional refrigerator according to the related art is designed to control the output of the heater.
Therefore, the conventional refrigerator unavoidably stops the defrosting process although the defrosting process must be continuously performed, such that a heater output level for such defrosting may be deteriorated.